


Interest

by DargonWolfeh



Series: An Apex Story [2]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Oc getting implemented into the story wut wut, Spy - Freeform, Technocrat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26244421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DargonWolfeh/pseuds/DargonWolfeh
Summary: Technocrat's job is to keep an eye on that Kim guy, but that's proving to be more difficult than she thought.
Series: An Apex Story [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1528175
Kudos: 1





	Interest

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, don't hate me, I'm working on a lot of fics at once. On the bright side, I've only started like... two new ones in the last few months, and I've deleted a lot of old prompts that I've either lost interest in or are just so old that canon lore has made them useless to write.
> 
> I started this one like... last year?? I think? So if you notice a change in writing style halfway through, that's why. Also, this was originally supposed to be a oneshot, but now it's gonna be a multichapter fic. As of right now idk how many that's gonna be though.
> 
> Oh yeah, and this takes place during season 3, like maybe halfway through?

Getting dirt on Hyeon Kim was one of the hardest assignments Chara was ever tasked with.  
  
She was no stranger to tough nuts to crack. In fact, she found herself welcoming the challenge. She could worm her way into any legend's life, some far easier than others. All it took was finding their soft spot.  
  
Some were easy enough to get warmed up to her, like Ajay or Makoa. Then again, they didn't have anything to hide. They were just trying to help their friends, either by getting the money to pay for medical expenses, or keeping them from going six feet under in the games. They were good people, and they had good intentions for joining- even if that meant getting their hands a little dirty.  
  
Others were a little harder to crack, like those lovebirds, Elliot and Renee. Of course, finding out they were together wasn't really what was interesting about them- especially since that was obvious since she first stepped into the ring (In fact, her first game she was actually put on a team with them, and she thought she was gonna get sick from all their gushy antics). They were interesting because both of them had a history with the IMC, Elliot's brothers having fought in the war and Renee having been a pilot over on Typhon. Though that was about as interesting as they got, since Witt never really took part in anything himself and Blasey's memories were fried.  
  
But then there were people like that Kim guy. Seriously, the guy was like a ghost, except this ghost was really good at making sure nobody knew about his past. The earliest thing she could find for him was his fitness report after his evals upon entering the games. She's surprised they even let him in, dude couldn't run for shit, but his aim was top notch- probably because he had something in that optical implant of his to keep his aim on track- and in a blood sport where the primary weapons were guns? Suppose that would make sense.  
  
It didn't matter how much she tried to get on his good side, how interested she acted in his drone, how interested she acted in him himself, he wouldn't budge. She tried to corner him during games, away from the prying eyes of the cameras, but he'd always get away. She tried to stop him at the cafeteria, tried to bump into him on the way on and off the drop ship, but the most she got was a grunt or a short 'I'm busy' before he would just disappear in the crowd. She had to hand it to him, he was good at running away.  
  
But boy was he shit at hiding.  
  
Well, hiding was a strong word for it. He was shit at _blending in_. In this case, blending in was _not_ having a squeaky clean record, _not_ showing up out of the blue with an interest in being an apex legend, and _not_ claiming that the reason you joined the games was for 'justice.' Who the heck joins a _blood sport_ for justice? That was the bit that caught Chara's interest the most, but apparently not her supervisor, who wanted her to just keep an eye on him so he didn't do anything fishy.  
  
So that's exactly what she was going to do.  
  
"What kinda justice are you looking for?" Crypto nearly tripped over himself through the snow. He glanced back at Techno, wrapped tightly in the furs of her thick coat and trudging just a couple of feet behind him. "The I've been wronged so much I'm gonna end the world kind or I'm looking for the guy who killed my sister kind?"  
  
He readjusted his hands in his pockets. Rolling his shoulders, he turned forward again, walking a little faster now.  
  
"You don't have to tell me or anything," She continued, a smug little smile stretching across her lips, knowing she was already striking a nerve, "But I'm gonna keep asking till I get something."  
  
" _N_ _eoui munjega aniya_ ," Was his only response, and she huffed.  
  
" _Gwenchana_ , you can tell me. It's not like I'm a spy or anything."  
  
Whether he caught her bluff or really was just that paranoid, he didn't budge other than to act like he wasn't surprised that she understood him. She did, however, catch him change the rhythm of his walk, like he had to actually start focusing on it now.  
  
They walked in uncomfortable silence for a while. Well, uncomfortable for him. She could see the tension in his stride, even after they made it to overlook for the night, where it was a little less cold and the snow was lighter. Chara was fine. More than fine, really. She could do this all day.  
  
Crypto clearly couldn't.  
  
"Stop watching me." Crypto shielded the drone he was working on away from her, giving her a nasty looking side eye before returning to his tinkering. Chara kept watching.  
  
"Does that thing record everything it sees?"  
  
He stayed silent.  
  
"Does it record at all? It's a drone so I'm right, right?"  
  
Still silent.  
  
Chara sighed and readjusted her position on the stairs, leaning just a little further over the railing to get a better view of what he was doing. Now that she had a closer look, she noticed something familiar about it.  
  
" _Jenjang!_ Can you _please_ stop, it's making me uncomfortable-"  
  
"That looks an awful lot like the drones used for recording the games."  
  
THAT, made him instantly shut up. His mouth stayed open for at least two seconds before slowly closing it, seeming to choose his next words very, very carefully.  
  
"... what do you mean?" His voice was almost hushed. He was looking at her carefully, not exactly suspiciously. She actually couldn't quite place the look, but clearly she struck something. Possibly something dangerous.  
  
"I meeeaan..." She lazily picked at the rust on the railing, pretending to not notice the way he was trying to hide the drone away from her, like she hadn't already seen it a million times by now, "What you have there looks like it doesn't belong to you, mister mysterious paranoid hacker."  
  
"Well, it _does._ I built it myself." He seemed to let that slip out unintentionally, because the moment it got out, his whole body tensed, and instant regret shot across his face.  
  
Bingo.  
  
"Oh I get it, I get..." She raised her hands up defensively, walking down the stairs. Crypto suddenly looked very uncomfortable, to the point where he actually shot to his feet and took a couple steps back, doing a pretty good job at hiding whatever terror was probably bubbling up inside him right now.  
  
"See what?" She pretended not to hear the very light waver in his voice.  
  
"It all makes sense now, the paranoia, the shady attitude, the 'seeking revenge,' and your really weird knowledge about all the legends..." She had made it down the stairs and stopped just at the other end of the room, keeping plenty of space between them. He looked like he wanted to run, to jump out the window or disappear like Mirage, or just overall but be anywhere but in the room with her. She gave him a knowing smile, more along the lines of condescending than anything.  
  
"Clearly whoever made the camera drones stole your idea and ran off with the payload, amiright?"  
  
Crypto's head actually tilted, like a dog, to the side just the slightest bit. She saw the flash of confusion run through his eyes, before it quickly disappeared, and his eyes widened, before he stuck the drone back in its holster and brought back his cool guy facade.  
  
" _N-ne,_ yeah. That's why I'm here." He turned away, almost huffing as his initial stress seemed to melt away.  
  
He offered to take the first watch for the night, and she let him. She wasn't worried about him killing her in her sleep or anything. That'd get him disqualified anyway, and she got the feeling that was the last thing he wanted, or rather, needed.  
  
She was fully aware that was not at all the reason he joined the games. She just didn't wanna scare the poor guy off, not so soon at least. She needed info, and the best way to get that was to get him to trust her. And since that wasn't working, plan B was to get him to lower his guard, just enough, for him to slip up.  
  
And boy, did he slip up hard.  
  
After getting home (they ambushed and taken out the next morning) and one quick sweep through the game's employee archives, she found the names of every single person who was in charge of their advertising department. The list was long, and she hardly recognized any of the names, but then one stuck out in particular.  
  
Well, two did. One of them was Mila Alexander, her name in the system was red and had a small little box to the side that read DECD. She was a foster kid, lived on Gaea, and the poor girl had been murdered by her foster brother.  
  
Taejoon Park.  
  
His was the other name of interest. Instead of saying deceased in the system, like his sister, it actually said AWOL. Not only that, but there was a detailed report of where he was last seen, his threat level (marked as _incredibly_ high, despite having only killed his sister, which suspiciously there was no report on _how_ or _why_ he did so), how much for his capture (dead or alive) was worth, and some very clear wanted pictures that looked just a little too familiar.  
  
"Taejoon Park, huh?" Chara leaned back in her chair, kicking her feet on the table taking a well deserved sip of coffee. Man was she good at her job.  
  
\---  
  
She only reported that Hyeon Kim was just some guy stealing blueprints for the drones than anyone of actual criminal interest. That was enough to keep her boss off her back, and keep Crypto from getting any easy access to the internal files for anything related to the games or her employers. She wasn't gonna rat him out, but she was still part of the organization he was trying to take down. Like hell she was gonna lose one of the best paying jobs of her lifetime. Not without an alternative option.  
  
Park noticed _immediately.  
  
_Not even an entire day after spilling the beans, he'd cornered her, at night just outside of Paradise Lounge, and to say she was surprised would be an exaggeration. He definitely spooked her though, pinning her to the wall with an arm crushing her throat and a gun to her stomach.  
  
"What did you tell them?" He'd asked, and despite the very painful way his arm was cutting off her air supply, she smiled and laughed.  
  
"Tell who?"  
  
"Don't play stupid," He pushed the gun further against her, " _What._ Did. You. Tell. Them?"  
  
"For all you know, I told them I have proof you killed Mila and they're on the way to come kill you right now." She knew that was a _very_ risky card to throw out, especially with a fucking gun to her stomach, but the look in his eyes shifted from their vehement rage to something a little less hostile. Dangerous, nonetheless, but she could work with it.  
  
"I could have a tracker and this conversation could be recorded. There could be a sniper right above us and I don't think you can dodge bullets, _Park._ "  
  
" _Bullshit._ " He didn't swear in English, but she still understood. There was a frantic, wild sort of look in his eyes. Desperate, like a cornered animal trying to look scary, except he very much wasn't the cornered animal. Not literally, at least.  
  
"You won't kill me, Taejoon," Hearing his name, his real name, made him flinch, and the wicked smirk on her face turned downright criminal.  
  
"If you kill me they'll trace it right back to you. You know they will. If I'm so much as missing for a day they'll be on you like dogs. They'll see everything I've got on you and you'll be on the run again, and I know that's the last thing you want. _C_ _hong naelyeo nwa, babo._ "  
  
He tensed, as if considering what she said was a trap. His eyes bore into hers, trying to look for the lie, the trick, running what she said through his mind over and over, until finally, his grip on her relaxed. Only enough for her to breathe properly.  
  
"You lied to them." It was more of a statement than a question, but she nodded anyway.  
  
"Always intended to. I make more money _trying_ to figure you out than giving them everything, although that bonus _is_ pretty tempting. You got a lotta money on your head, hackerman." Her hands, for the most part, had remained in her pockets. She finally pulled one out, slowly so as not to startle him, and gently push against the wrist he had on her jugular, "You gonna let me breathe now?"  
  
"What do you want from me?" The gun clicked, and she instantly pulled her hand away and let the back of it rest flat against the wall, palm open and facing him, to show she wasn't trying to pull anything with it. The other balled into a fist in her pocket.  
  
"Nothing from you, in particular. You're just some poor sap who got mixed up in the wrong crowd, and your sister paid the price." She blew a piece of hair out of her face, "I want info."  
  
"On who?"  
  
"Everyone. The other legends, my employers- pretty much anything you find on every _thing_ , and every _one,_ I'm interested." His eyes narrowed at her.  
  
"You think I would just _give_ you that sort of information? Do you think I'm stupid?"  
  
"Yes, very, but you you've got a brain in there, and you know how to use it when you need to, so I'm trusting that you'll use it now."  
  
He was using it. _Definitely_ using it. It took him a solid ten, fifteen seconds of silence, of him eyeing her down, thinking of how he could make it out of this alive, contemplating probably whether killing her would be worth the risk or not.  
  
Both of them knew it wasn't.  
  
"I don't trust you." He finally said, which he sounded sure of, but he stepped away anyway, allowing her to bring her hand back down and shove it back in her pocket. Her fist relaxed in the other one.  
  
"I figured you wouldn't, so here," She quickly slipped something out of her satchel and tossed it out in front of her, letting it slide toward him. Of course, his first reaction was to jump away from it, eyeing it before eyeing _her_ incredulously. She had to bite her tongue to stop herself from laughing.  
  
" _Geuge mwoya?_ "  
  
"What does it look like? It's a flash drive, dumbass." She was already turning and walking off. He didn't make a move to follow her, but he wasn't done.  
  
"Hey, wait! You can't- What did you put in it? How do I know it won't explode or something?" He didn't exactly raise his voice, but its pitch turned to something a little higher, either from disbelief or fear. She couldn't tell, and she didn't really care either.  
  
"God you are so _paranoid._ " Chara sighed, but didn't turn around to acknowledge him. Instead, she waved a dismissive hand.  
  
"It's all the illegal shit I had to do for my job that they helpfully covered up for me. Y'know, stuff that can get me fired." She stopped at the corner of the alley, turning her head just enough so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. "Consider this a trust exercise. Wouldn't want my newest partner thinking I'm out to stab him in the back."  
  
" _Partner?-_ "  
  
"And vice versa. Now we've got dirt on each other, so we can't rat the other out without consequences." She winked at him.  
  
"See you in the ring, _Taejoon._ "  
  
As she rounded the corner, she heard him swear under his breath, but she also caught a glimpse of his drone floating down from wherever it was hiding (most likely spying and ready to EMP her if she tried anything funny) and begin scanning her flash drive. She knew he wouldn't be able to resist looking in it. Working with someone on the inside was exactly what he needed.  
  
And working with someone trying to take down the syndicate was exactly what she needed too.  
  
She just hadn't realized until she met him.  
  
This was definitely about to get a lot more interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations
> 
> Neoui munjega aniya- "It's not your problem"  
> Gwenchana- "It's okay"  
> Chong naelyeo nwa, babo- "Put the fucking gun down, idiot" or "Put the gun down, idiot"  
> Geuge mwoya?- "What is that?" or "What is it?"
> 
> \----
> 
> I wish I could read Korean words written in English letters. I wanna know what that first loading screen says so BAD and I don't know how to pronounce the words correctly for my grandma to be able to understand, and she can't read English too well. Or at all, I don't think. Her eyes ain't what they used to be.
> 
> Also WHO ELSE READ PAGE 3 OF THE COMIC. I HAD A HUNCH AND I WAS FREAKING RIGHT.


End file.
